Trim the Fat off Goals!

Goals are great to have, especially when they are jotted down on a piece of paper or the occasional napkin wrapped around your Starbucks coffee. They help keep people on track with achieving their desired outcome; however, it is the structure of the goal which will help determine how effective the goal will be.

Starbucks Coffee has a great corporate social responsibility goal, stated below, that describes their move towards reducing cup waste and becoming a greener company.

"Starbucks passion for reducing cup waste did not start with the Green Project. Since 1985, we have offered a discount to customers who bring in a reusable travel mug and will continue doing so. This is just one of the ways we are fulfilling our commitment to environmental stewardship while we work towards a long-term goal of 100% reusable or recyclable cups by 2015."

Sounds like a pretty sound goal right? Wrong…I believe the goal is too vague when they state the company plans to be using “100% reusable or recyclable cups by 2015.”  Why the option of reusable or recyclable cups? They should be more precise and pick one or the other. Here is an example of a precise goal…“By 2015, it is Starbucks goal to reduce cup waste by 100% by requiring customers to provide their own reusable cup.”

Goals which are too vague enable goal mutation, which means the goal mutates into a different goal and veers off-track from the original desired outcome. (Attention visual learners…I created a diagram that depicts the problem.) In order to stop a goal from mutating, individuals need to create goals that are precise as possible.

Remember: it is okay to have multiple goals; just not vague ones.